Maple Folks.
Big thanks to Gary R, for coming up and helping me install the final taps.
https://i.imgur.com/TLSNEwB.jpg
Regards,
Chris
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Maple Folks.
Big thanks to Gary R, for coming up and helping me install the final taps.
https://i.imgur.com/TLSNEwB.jpg
Regards,
Chris
It was a great time helping my mentor out yesterday. I’m from his neck of the woods, I forgot just how much poison ivy there is up there. I boiled a few days ago and we’re boiling 200 gallons right now. Should make syrup in an hour or so.
I tapped yesterda. 12 in my woods and 4 in the neighbor's yard. Checked buckets this evening and most were 1/4 to 1/3 full. While I was checking buckets, a deer came out of nowhere and almost ran me over.
Folks,
Dennis T from Ohio brought some sap to boil:
https://i.imgur.com/o99r2Lr.jpg
Friend John K. firing:
https://i.imgur.com/czlzsOM.jpg
First boil in 2022 on the old 3 x 10 King:
https://i.imgur.com/tNN8QP7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CNNVvVJ.jpg
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
Good to get some steam going:
https://i.imgur.com/GMen85Q.jpg
Pans are sweet we now wait for Ma Nature.
Regards,
Chris
WOW Chris... That is one heck of a setup!
Looks good Chris. How are you posting such beautiful photos when everyone else is having problems trying to post photos?
Z/MAN, Skeller, Folks,
Thanks on the sugarhouse. it works but has been several years getting it tuned in. Have rebuilt the arch a couple years ago an it works well with some basic upgrades like AOF.
Picture? Well I dont use photobucket any more. I use a software called imgur to hold my resized photos. I have about 8,000 + of them. I use a Android to take the pictures, then resize them to 800 x 400 ish pixel using Photo Resizer app. It is a bunch of work but most of the time they post up easy and are pretty good quality for these forums. There are many other ways to accomplish the same thing I am sure!
Regards,
Chris
Maple Folks,
Working in the shop kitchen the last few days making sauces:
https://i.imgur.com/Vqep7bP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/cLOuXgk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/frB4W1Q.jpg
hope to gather again tomorrow and maybe make some syrup!
The great grandsons tapped there sugarbush in the back yard a couple days ago but it has been too cold to run.
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
Gathered 600 gal of 2.2% sap last night before the freezing cold temps hit again.
https://i.imgur.com/bUZoVtA.jpg
Jim (Father and Son) came over this morning and helped me boil raw sap into finished syrup on the old wood fired King arch!
We made 24 gallons of syrup, All Amber syrup, great flavor.
Two of the great grandkids were here today and visited the sugarhouse several times to check out the fire.
https://i.imgur.com/RKYE6iP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/FqmNyP7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tCeMlHi.jpg
Warm weather coming for the weekend. I had a sap pump go dead last night. Will try to improvise till a new one arrives.
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
Sap pump back on line. EE Friend found a bad wire somewhere. He rewired the system from the truck to the pump. Ready for sap today!
It will be a typical busy week making syrup and getting maple items ready for the public a week from now!
Hope things are good in Maple Land!
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
Still here making syrup!
Another small last night. Out comes some nice Dark robust syrup.
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
Some shots from the weekend:
https://i.imgur.com/8HVHk1M.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/WRNadwx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uhzMzDb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lewGIpW.jpg
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
https://i.imgur.com/e4Cf52V.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ywqmm56.jpg
Maple Taste and Tour in a blizzard! It was great! Had lots of fun!
Regards,
Chris
Maple folks,
Still plodding along making syrup when sap is there!
https://i.imgur.com/YOvU4jJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TuQNEBI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GzbmmUq.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jaERp0B.jpg
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
https://i.imgur.com/euu3Dz6.jpg
We have about 120 gallons so far. Weather is too warm to run till early next week. May need to get the syrup boiled in, that is in the rig.
https://i.imgur.com/2wTGgrE.jpg
Visited a couple other sugarhouses in the area that were doing just fine carrying on the maple sugaring traditions!
Regards,
Chris
Maple folks,
Could we be done! Well the seasons seem to be getting shorter! We completed 130 gallons of syrup Amber, Dark and a little Very Dark.
Cheryl watching the rig:
https://i.imgur.com/cgczdVk.jpg
Family in the sugarhouse, That's what its all about, and the main reason I built it. Great grand daughter Chloe is enjoying the warm heat while she sleeps in her moms arms.
https://i.imgur.com/XsKCAE3.jpg
Cheryl and I on probably the last night to boil this season!
https://i.imgur.com/VUDQxoC.jpg
Probably a lot of sugarmakers have maple leaf tattos? Being the wird guy that I am, I had maple leaf art work added to the dental crown installed on St. Patrick's day. Strange but true!:)
Regards,
Chris
In what is known around here as the Bortles zone! Which means as your syrup is being drawn off the temp doesnt get higher than .3 above the setpoint. The rig is running pretty good at that time. Phrase comes from Father and Son!
https://i.imgur.com/BL3I7tL.jpg
The old King rig just coasting along.
https://i.imgur.com/VB1OMmB.jpg
Making some darker syrup:
https://i.imgur.com/IRnaM6S.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xnw1S4s.jpg
Hope your syrup is great! Keep on boiling!
Regards,
Chris
I pulled buckets Saturday morning and did some playing with the RO while I boiled off the last 10 gallons. Ran though twice and ended up with around 6%. Made a nice little batch for maple BBQ sauce. Ended up with about 3 gallons total. The RO definitely helped keep me on track this year.
Ryne, Folks,
Have stuck a fork in it for the season. Lines all rinsed and draining in the bush. Will pick up the containers in a day or so. Have the evaporator and steam away filled with vinegar water solution and a small fire. Weather is way too warm for too long. Dumped 200 gallons of sap yesterday as I moved through the roadside sugarbush. Most all of it was cloudy and gray, just after a day or so.
Syrup sales are brisk. And we have been invited to Asbury Woods Nature center for their Maple Weekend April 2 and 3 from 10-4. Should be a good time.
Hope things are good in in the Sugarbush!
Keep on boiling!
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
Cheryl and I picked up the sap containers and bases.
Drained the evaporator after heating with the vinegar in the pans and steam away.
Yesterday Great grandson Cooper had a good time helping with the evaporator clean up! The water was only luke warm as he was playing with the scoops and stainless stuff. I had just started the fire to warm the full pans.
https://youtu.be/prQ7OfYWpbk
Several visitors came to the sugarhouse and the Maple kitchen today. Canned another 10 gallons of Amber Rich this morning and made a batch of Maple mustard this afternoon.
Cold weekend weather coming. Sap may run again? We will see! Several local sugarmakers are ready to make some additional syrup!
Regards,
Chris
Folks,
Several local sugarhouse are still making syrup. Darker but good flavor. Also heard that there may have been some metabolic flavors detected in some of this later syrup. I guess I continue to learn things: You can hear the peepers every night until you get a warm rain and then the season is done. Man I need to brush up on this peeper thing and the weather. Our family records indicate they were making syrup about 200 years ago and they never passed that down to me!!
So I sanitized, scrubbed and rinsed the sap containers today and have them draining and drying in the sugarhouse. Boy is it nice to have the sugarhouse open without as many items in it!
Our weekend at Asbury Woods in Erie was awesome. Many visitors sampled our maple syrup and value added products and they took most of it home with them!:) We tried our hand at making maple coated popcorn. Learned some things: Like sift out the unpopped kernels before coating the popcorn. I made a sive and kernel catcher that made that job easy.
https://i.imgur.com/Z0a7PuN.jpg
Next will be to pick up the tubing in the sugarbush that has been rinsed and is drip drying/ draining. A dry warm day makes that project go much easier. about 30 rolls of the short run tubing and drops will be brought back to the sugarhouse. I will color code the roles to indicate which third of the sugarbush they go in. The rolls will be hung in the sugarhouse rafters until next season.
Hope things are good in maple land!
Keep boiling (if you are still in the game) Or you can go to other sugarhouses and visit!
Regards,
Chris
Chris, The 100 year old adage in my family is that you can make good syrup for 2 weeks after you hear the first "frogs" if you have the right "syrup weather". It's been pretty spot on and why I held out till this past week and weekends run. Made some real good tasting dark syrup here on the west end of Lake Erie. I'm pulling taps tonight.
Ed, Folks,
Well you would have been spot on with that prediction this year. There was some additional syrup to be made this season. We wrapped up a little early. Things to do and had two big maple events for us. So we were very busy. Sure feels good to be done, with every thing put away for the season. Now to make some maple products for our great customers! Just doing prototype development work on a somewhat new maple product this afternoon too. Got to keep moving and moving maple!
Regards,
Chris
And what's the name of the condition when the temperature exceeds the 0.3 rise?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugarmaker
Ken,
That would be how i normally make syrup. Hard for me to stay in the zone with wood fire and 5 foot syrup pan. Haven't come up with a name for that yet:)
Happy Easter!
Regards,
Chris
Maple folks,
Yes still here and making syrup too. We set up the roadside sugar bush in late January, and tapped February 5th. We have boiled almost every day with good to very good runs on our gravity 625 taps. Syrup class was right at the golden/ amber line. We made 85 about 95 gallons of that. Ast night we went from amber to dark as we finished another 12 gallons.
Weather has warmed and stopped sap flow today. Looks like another day or so and we will be back at it.
We are pleased with the quantity and quality of the syrup too.
So far one of the best seasons in 20 years. Over 5% of our normal season made in 10 days with 9 boils!
I have pictures just need to load them.
Off topic:
The 1932 Ford dump truck has a new rebuilt engine installed an is running good!
Regards,
Chris
Maple folks,
Well yes I am still here and trying to make syrup again for another year. Cheryl and I have been making syrup here for 23 years! The season has started earlier this year. Just the way the forecast looks this year! Tap count remains right around 625. We hope to make some syrup tomorrow evening. The pans are sweet with 350 gallons of 2% sap boiled in yesterday. We tapped last Tuesday and Wednesday. Gathered sap Thursday and boiled Friday. For the first time in my syrup making I saw a distinct difference in sap produced from trees down in the valley by the creeks vs trees that got just a little frost up at higher elevations. 200 low elevation taps produced about 50 gallons, 200 taps up on the colder hill produced the other 300 gal. I didn't even go check the other 200 because they are lower and were only tapped the day before.
All our syrup is gone from last season.
Looking forward to the 2024 season, Several other sugar-house's are gearing up to tap or have already made syrup in our area.
A good freeze tonight should produce some good runs this coming week.
Good luck in your maple season!
Regards,
Chris and Cheryl
Maple folks,
We are close to the end of our season for 2025. So grateful that Cheryl wanted to make syrup with me again this year. Not sure about another season? Cheryl rode with me while I put out tubing, set the collection containers, tapped the trees and gathered sap. She loves to get out and ride and listen to the radio. It's getting very hard for her to get in and out of the F250. Got a step for helping her get to the running board.
Yes we made about 100 gallons of syrup. might be a little sap this week.
Regards,
Chris and Cheryl
I visited on a busy night of boiling, great set up you have put together Chris, thanks for sharing your knowledge as well!Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugarmaker